A highly popular online soccer destination for millennials is coupling with a powerful media company to advance a social media-first forum for Hispanic soccer fans.
Juanfutbol, the social soccer channel for young Hispanics since 2014, has partnered with UnivisionDeportes.com to form the juanfutbol Facebook channel. The page will feature content mostly in English geared toward “bilingual and bicultural Hispanic millennials,” according to a press release.
The content to appear on juanfutbol will cover both the Mexican and United States professional soccer – Liga MX and MLS, respectively — as well as both nations’ national teams. It will also cover national and international games and tournaments.
“We are thrilled to partner with juanfutbol to bring unique social storytelling to a digital savvy younger audience, in English,” Juan Pablo Convers, Univision Digital’s vice president of business development, said in a statement. “This partnership will strengthen UCI’s position as the home of soccer and expand our reach and engagement with Hispanic millennials.”
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Currently, the Facebook channel has more than three million likes and followers. On the page visitors can find soccer memes, entertaining videos that deliver soccer-related news, and a shop that offers branded T shirts. One such post, called a “juanreaction,” shows six pictures of soccer players with captions and one of the Facebook reactions—a heart, a angry face, a laughing face, a sad face, a surprised face, and the traditional thumbs up. A cursory look at the page suggests that posts are put up every hour or so, resulting in a stream of shareable content.
One video, for example, shows Hirving “Chucky” Lozano, a popular Mexican footballer, signing a deal with PSV Eindhoven in the Netherlands. The juanfutbol video producers add text elements to videos to help fans understand the news and entertainment value of what is being depicted on the screen.
“We created “Juan” to feel, communicate and be as passionate as any other fan and now we are excited to expand our presence in the U.S. through the Univision partnership,” Miguel Ramirez Lombana, juanfutbol’s CEO, said in a statement.
According to Mauricio Cabrera, juanfutbol’s general manager, Univision’s distribution will help juanfutbol attract and engage with more Hispanic soccer fans both within the U.S. and Mexico.